Dump trucks drive along a road at Talvivaara’s nickel mine in Sotkamo, Finland.塔爾維瓦拉礦業公司位於芬蘭索特卡莫的鎳礦山上，自卸車沿路行進。

Photo: Reuters 照片：路透

With a weaker US dollar already pushing up the price of metals in addition to growing global demand for electric vehicle components — which use nickel as a raw material in their electric batteries — the price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange (LME) has appreciated by 50 percent from its low at the end of 2015. Despite this, nickel’s current value is still a long way off from its historic high of US$30,000 per tonne.

Analysts say nickel is a classic case of a lagging index. With weak demand for nickel over the past few years, mining companies reduced investment in the metal, but an inability to meet a sudden increase in demand has sent the price soaring. However, other analysts believe widespread adoption of electric vehicles is still a long way off and attribute the near-term rise in the value of nickel to market funds driving up the price.

Last Tuesday the price of nickel rose by 1.8 percent on the LME to approach a three-year-high of US$13,500 per tonne, mainly off the back of favorable economic data from China. Meanwhile, demand for steel is high, which pushed up demand for raw nickel, Chinese new home prices rose in January and China’s manufacturing survey revealed an expansion in orders for last month.

According to global commodities broker Marex Spectron, international nickel prices have been on the rise for the past 12 months and nickel is currently moving toward a bull market scenario. The broker argues that, when analyzing the recent strength of nickel, increased demand for electric vehicle components was simply the cherry on the cake and a fatigued US dollar was the main reason behind the metal’s rise. Additional factors are the global economic recovery and the automation of industry. Furthermore, in January the US dollar index touched the bottom of a price band, falling to 88.43 points, which Marex Spectron says strengthened the price of many commodities.

TODAY’S WORDS今日單字

1. nickel

n.鎳

(nie4)

2. historic high

phr. 歷史高點

(li4 shi3 gao1 dian3)

3. mining company

phr. 礦商

(kuang4 shang1)

4. economic data

phr. 經濟數據

(jing1 ji4 shu4 ju4)

5. new home price

phr.新屋價格

(xin1 wu1 jia4 ge2)

6. manufacturing survey

phr.製造業調查

(zhi4 zao4 ye4 diao4 cha2)

7. bull market

phr.牛市

(niu2 shi4)

8. cherry on the cake

phr.錦上添花

(jin3 shang4 tian1 hua1)

9. commodity

n.大宗商品

(da4 zong1 shang1 pin3)

10. downturn

n.低迷

(di1 mi2)

Additionally, the mining industry has pointed out that from a demand perspective, consumption of nickel has increased over the course of the past year. However, due to an extended period of downturn in the market, investment in nickel extraction by mining companies stagnated. Since it is difficult for mining companies to rapidly ramp-up production over the short-term, supply could not keep up with demand and this drove the upswing in the price of nickel.

of economic data is released, usually on a monthly basis, which can be used to gauge the overall health of the economy. Central banks use the data to inform decision making around the setting of interest rates and investors use the data to make investment decisions.